The City of Aberdeen is in the process of distributing thousands of new trash containers to residents.
“This is a big deal in the city because were are completely changing how we do our process,” City Manager Randy Robertson told the mayor and City Council at their meeting Monday night.
Delivery of the trash toters — one green for trash and one blue for recycling — began March 5, Public Works Director Kyle Torster said.
Each 64-gallon container has the City of Aberdeen logo on it. They should be large enough for residents’ trash, Torster said. The average household in the city puts out about 31 pounds of trash a week, he said.
The containers are being delivered between 2 and 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturdays, Torster said. The two delivery crews had gotten through half of Zone 1 by Saturday and expected to be finished with the rest by the end of the week.
Delivery is expected to take eight to nine weeks, Torster said.
“Once you get them, start using them, go ahead,” he said.
The Aegis: Top stories
The new system is much more efficient for employees, since the trucks will work on a mechanical lift to pick up the containers, Torster said.
He asked that residents who think they might need two containers to wait until all of them have been delivered before requesting a second one.
Some residents, he said, want to go with a private trash hauling company, and the city will get in writing their desire to decline the city’s services.
If residents don’t want their old trash containers, they can give them to the city, Robertson said.
Aberdeen resident Bob Hartman asked why the city is waiting until July 1, the start of a new fiscal year, to stop using the existing sticker system, which has been in place for a number of years. Residents were required to buy $1 stickers to put on their trash bags, a system city officials conceded wasn’t working.
Why not stop the sticker system now, Hartman asked, while saying he would continue to pay for and use his stickers.
“Other people are not paying,” Hartman said. “They’re getting a free ride on my back.”